"Gov. Jindal's 'new' plan is an obvious attempt to drape himself with the aura of gravitas that his governorship has failed to produce."

In late 2007, before Gov. Bobby Jindal took office, I addressed a group of health insurance executives in New Orleans eager to learn about what Louisiana's new governor had in store for them. Jindal is a health care expert and a policy wonk, I advised them. You may not like what he'll propose for your industry, I warned, but brace yourselves for lots of innovation and policy experimentation.

I couldn't have been more wrong. The famously wonkish Jindal proved a conventional
and unimaginative politician who, after more than six years as governor, has no
major innovative idea to his name.

When it comes
to public policy, Jindal sells used cars. From education to health care to economic
development, the governor has sold us a collection of dilapidated conservative ideas
and practices. That's why, near the end of two terms, he has launched his
nascent presidential campaign by outsourcing policy production to an Alexandria,
Va., think tank, "America Next."

After
months of labor, Jindal and his advisers finally rolled out their first big
policy initiative: "The Prescription for Conservative
Consumer-Focused Health Care Reform." Jindal went to Washington on Wednesday
to present what some mistakenly characterized as a fresh policy prescription,
founded on the proposition that the Affordable Care Act must be repealed.

Perhaps,
like me, Washington's policy mavens once regarded Jindal as an innovator and
policy expert. If they study his plan, however, they'll realize that his new vehicle is just
a high-mileage contraption cobbled together with used parts that Republicans
have been selling for years.

Seemingly
blind to the fact that most
Americans oppose repealing Obamacare, Jindal staged a junkyard sale of second-hand
proposals, offering retreads like health savings accounts and "lawsuit reform." Jindal salvaged another vintage
GOP idea -- turning the federal government's
most successful and popular program, Medicare, into a privatized voucher
program.

He did unveil a redesign of Medicaid, a $100 billion block grant alternative to the current program. But while we wait for Congress and President Obama to realize the brilliance of that idea, wouldn't it be sensible and humane to accept the federal Medicaid expansion dollars now on the table? Why must
Louisiana's working poor receive their health care only from a vehicle of
Jindal's design?

Jindal's used-car special, however, wasn't a total flop. He offered several decent
suggestions, including guaranteeing better access for individuals who change
jobs and cross-state insurance purchasing. (Even these commendable ideas are
previously owned.)

But don't
mistake Jindal's concern about your health care for a desire to improve or enhance
the Affordable Care Act. As with most Republican leaders, it's repeal the current law or nothing.
Nothing, of course, is what he'll get.

If Jindal truly
cared about "his"
ideas, he would
work to build support for them as improvements to a health insurance law that's
here to stay. He won't
for one simple reason: Jindal's plan is really about caring for the health of his
presidential ambitions.

If Jindal were
the policy expert he pretends to be --
if he actually cared about devising an innovative alternative to the Affordable
Care Act -- he would have proposed something serious and bold when Congress debated the
bill in 2009.

Recall
that Jindal was once assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services under President George W. Bush. He had been staff director of the National Bipartisan Commission on
the Future of Medicare. He served as Gov. Mike Foster's secretary of Health and Hospitals. In other words, Jindal had the stature and policy chops to get a fair hearing in Washington for some daring health care ideas, if he had any.

He didn't. Instead, he phoned in an op-ed to The Washington Post in October
2009, trying to unload many of the road-weary items now sitting on his
second-hand policy lot.

Jindal's "new" plan is an obvious attempt
to drape himself with the aura of gravitas that his governorship has failed to produce.
He has nothing new or different to present to Republican audiences in Iowa and
New Hampshire.

Jindal
seems to think if he talks fast and uses terms like "innovation," "premium support" and "modernization," conservatives might think his
policy junkers are sleek, new ideas.

But
talking like a used car salesman doesn't
make you a policy wonk. Jindal hopes that conservatives won't notice what he's selling them is about as new and
appealing as a beat-up Datsun. I suspect once they kick the worn-out tires and
look under the hood of Jindal's jalopy, they'll find something else to drive.

Robert Mann, an author and former
U.S. Senate and gubernatorial staffer, holds the Manship Chair in Journalism at
the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Read
more from him at his blog, Something Like the
Truth. Follow him on Twitter @RTMannJr or email him at bob.mann@outlook.com.